MALDEF defends redistricting map to House committee

Representatives from a Latino advocacy group and Latino lawmakers got their first opportunity on Friday to voice their opposition to a new redistricting plan proposed by Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton.

Solomons, chairman of the House Redistricting Committee, said his plan would add one Latino-majority district.

But Luis Figueroa, legislative staff attorney for Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the chairman’s proposal actually subtracts one Latino district. MALDEF’s map, which was released on Thursday, would add five new Latino-majority seats in the state, he said.

Figueroa said Solomons’ map contradicts recently released Census figures that show Texas owes 65 percent of it total growth since 2000 to a boom in the Latino community.

“We do believe there is retrogression on the map proposed today,” Figueroa said. “You almost have to go out of your way not to draw an additional one, but to reduce it” cannot be right.

Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, called the MALDEF plan “racial gerrymandering” and questioned the group’s attempt to draw new districts by cutting through the state’s county lines.

Phillips cited Sec. 26, Article III of the Texas Constitution, which stipulates that lawmakers who consider redistricting changes every decade can only draw districts that break through county lines if they have a compelling justification to do so.

Otherwise, lawmakers make their map vulnerable to challenges in state court. The Texas Supreme Court has twice ruled redistricting maps unconstitutional based on the county line provision — in 1971 and 1981.

Figueroa said MALDEF’s map takes the state provision into consideration, unless the group indicates a conflict with the federal Voting Rights Act.

Citing the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause — which grants federal law precedent over state law if in the case of a conflict — Figueroa said the Voting Rights Act compels the county line rule be discarded in some cases.

“In every instance were we break a county line, we’re only trying to do it for federal purposes,” said Figueroa, who testified for nearly three hours.